chinese racist product!! FAIL!!

[bomber_ten]

Furniture shopping: Everyone’s done it… a sturdy new coffee table, a firm yet all encompassing easy chair for the TV room – or a full-size, extra cozy couch the whole family can enjoy.

Canadian couple Doris Moore and her husband Douglas decided to make such a purchase – and chose a lovely, brand-new, brown leather set: Couch, loveseat and chair…

What they did not purchase was the particular shade of brown they got.

The tags, boldly appearing on each piece, told the Moores in no uncertain terms that the color of their comfy new set was actually “N*gger-brown.” Enough to shock even the staunchest bigot where they stand…but that wasn’t the worst part – it was their 7 year old daughter who discovered the flagrantly fiendish flub.

Curiously poking around just after the delivery men left, little Olivia asked mommy what the word meant.

Ms. Moore then got on the phone and began a journey find who was responsible for the insulting label.

A Chinese software company called Kingsoft Corp. acknowledged that the issue was created by a translator program it had written – one that would make the English speaking world understand what they were printing on their furniture’s labels.

Kingsoft apologized and indicated the “N” word was simply misspelled. It was supposed to be “Niger” coined after the river of the same name – which is dark brown in color.

The Moore’s however, aren’t satisfied. They retained counsel and are looking for more than just a simple apology.

“Something more has to be done. We don’t just need a personal apology, but someone needs to own up to where these labels were made, and someone needs to apologize to all people of color,” Moore said. “I had friends over from St. Lucia yesterday and they wouldn’t sit on the couch.”

-weird asia news-

[zesphiete]

There are so unlucky for having a small mistake which become a sensitive issue for others especially about races. Now, it turns out to be such a big mistake.

[goebrak]

they wont sit on that chair because the chair is "N" colored?
they're the racist.........

[ultramanandrew]

pretty funny. sucks for the store and the Moore family sounds like a grab bag of douchebags from this world. it's obvious it's a screw up, just accept it and stop being so lame.

[natcaasi]

Even with relatively new changes like the breaking of the ultimate "glass ceiling" (not just for women in a corporate setting) with the election of President Obama, i guess a bit of zealotry with regards to the issue of colour should not be discouraged in order to cement such change ...

Regardless of whether the offended parties did overreact or not ... it is still go to see that such an incident still causes people to take offense rather than just laugh it off.

Hope i do not get flamed for this post...

[~::AishaLoverLight::~]

The nigger brown-story is actually kind of old. And if I'm not mistaken the family was black. The story I remember about it was on CNN and when the little girl found the tag she asked her mother "what does a nigger look like?"

Honestly though, I can't understand why ANYONE in my culture is offended by that word anymore. I mean, when you get to the point where your calling yourself that in song and in daily conversation, there shouldn't be anymore controversy about it when someone else uses the word. I'd like to think that what abs is doing with their new single in reference to the word J-A-P.

[cyana]

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from, but that word is still offensive to us because some of us don't use it to describe ourselves. That word has a long and hurtful history attached to it. Just because a few people try to reappropriate it in song form doesn't hlep heal all the people who have been hurt by that word in the past. On the other hand, the company that made the tag was a very sloppy. If the friends from St. Lucia didn't want to sit on the sofa, I wouldn't blame them.

[psycopathx]

yeah its a pretty old story. but really its a single letter that got doubled, the company has apologized, and explained how it happened, so people really should get over it. (plus "nigger brown" makes no sense as "nigger" refers to "black" and not "brown" in any case. if the label was "nigger black" then it would be more acceptable to get upset about it)

*disclaimer* obviously I'm using potentially offensive words, however they are merely used to demonstrate a point and not directed at anyone as an insult*

[altaisenimpact]

everyone like make a big deal out of small thing, like this family

just relax...stop trying to personify yourself as a hero...they already said it's their own problem for spelling it wrong -_-...

[edmcel]

I didn't think that it was a big deal back when they reported it on the news. Though the word is offensive, it was used in an honest mistake, and we all know that in China that "Engrish" is quite common!

[DEPTHSING]

lol. ludicrous. chinese companies have always failed in translations. why dun they outsource the work to a PROPER translation company and then hire a lawyer to look thru the translations for any legal infringements...

[xenodephrun]

shows that google needs to work on its translator program, MANY chinese companies are depending on it LOL

But seriously, this is the first time I saw a chinese company get so much flak... They do this all the time! Well maybe this company didn't strike it lucky this time around. Hope they learn a lesson from this.

[Hurin]

I understand the guys feel offended, by taking it out on the Chinese to such an extent? Too much. There are many things that can be held against the Chinese, but being racist towards African people is hardly one of them. The two people just don't have anything to do with each other... other than a poor stab at furniture-naming (and, of course, the Chinese investments into Africa, but that's another story).

[sleeper1911]

Seems like a bit of an overreaction from that family considering it was an honest mistake and the Chinese company had no obvious ill intent...

[A4L]

Am I the only one who's sick of these people trying to bring up every stupid little thing and labeling it as "racist"? And they don't have a problem with their own people calling themselves that. It's really annoying now. If the company has already said that it was a mistake, it probably was. I have plenty of things from Chinese places (or even Asian places in general) that have horrible spelling mistakes on them. Just laugh it off. Something as stupid and as small as this, I hardly think that there was any reason for it to be there. It was a mistake and they've accounted for it. End of story.